Current oilfield technologies can only produce a fraction of downhole oil associated with a well. For example, only 30% of the oil associated with an average well in the US can be produced. This means that 70% of the downhole oil associated with existing American wells (an estimated 89 billion barrels) is still waiting to be produced.
Many organizations around the globe are currently looking into enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies to recover additional oil from existing wells. A variety of EOR technologies exist that can be tailored in various combinations to increase production from individual reservoirs.
However, in the case of carbonate reservoirs, such tailoring efforts can be complex, often involving extensive trial and error to determine an effective blend of EOR technologies. Such trial and error can be time consuming and costly.